Lakers' Slumber Turns Into Party

By TIM KAWAKAMI

April 30, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

All the grumbling and exasperation, the nit-picks and logically dismal pronouncements, all of it got zapped and short-circuited with a megawatt explosion of Laker energy Thursday.

You could test bombs with that level of energy, blast apart mountains.

Turn around a season at the last moment?

The Portland Trail Blazers were jolted into submission, battered by Shaquille O’Neal and toasted by Robert Horry, eventually losing, 108-89, before 17,505 at the Great Western Forum.

Call it a power surge, after a long, long brown-out.

“It was unbelievable,” said Coach Kurt Rambis, who had been predicting for days that his team would come out firing after two bristling practices and a couple of important clear-the-air meetings.

“It was fun to watch them. We know what this team is capable of doing. We know that they are capable of doing anything we ask them to do. It’s just a matter of them having the right mind-set and staying together.

“The difference is night and day for them.”

So, practice made perfect, and Horry made almost everything else.

After proclaiming themselves revitalized by the meetings and practices, the Lakers came out and played defense against Portland. All game. They had a halftime lead for the first time since April 11 against Seattle, eight games ago.

“We just got tired of losing,” O’Neal said. “Tired of playing like crap. We just figured it was time to take a stand.”

The ball was moved briskly--enough to create 29 Laker assists, including a game-high seven by Kobe Bryant--and the Lakers even had some fastbreaks.

And O’Neal and Horry were on a level that Portland, which defeated the Lakers twice earlier this season in Portland, including a 27-point whomping, could not match.

“The worst thing about tonight is that we didn’t play good and we lost to an L.A. team that shouldn’t beat us,” Portland guard Isaiah Rider said. “They’re not the Laker team of old, so they shouldn’t beat us.”

The Lakers (28-19) ended a three-game losing streak and climbed within half a game of Houston for the fourth spot in the Western Conference. It was probably their most thorough and impressive victory since March 7 in Utah.

The rumbling began with O’Neal, who flung himself into the crowd after a loose ball, knocked one blocked shot about three rows deep, and was a constant source of animation, domination and inspiration.

He finished with 38 points and 12 rebounds, and made 14 of his 17 free-throw tries, by far the best free-throw performance of this season.

“That’s the first time in a long time I think we played together,” O’Neal said. “I think we played smart. I think if we can learn from this game and play the next three like that and go into the playoffs playing like that, then we have a good chance.”

“We keep saying it--he is the leader of the ballclub,” Rambis said of O’Neal. “We know he’s capable of doing basically anything we ask him to do.”

And it helps when Horry has the game of his Laker career.

Horry bombed in a season-high 22 points, on six-of-eight shooting from three-point distance, eliciting rampant chants of “Horr-ee, Horr-ee” from the crowd.

Said Horry afterward: “At first, I said, ‘Are they saying Kobe? Or are they saying Horry?’ ”

By the end of the third quarter, Horry, who has slowly been rediscovering his outside-shooting touch and confidence, had swished five three-pointers in his first seven attempts, and already equaled his season-high of 17 points.

“That first one felt good,” Horry said. “The second one felt better. That one I shot from way downtown felt even better.”

In the second half alone, Horry made four of his five long attempts, with his teammates actually looking for him on the perimeter as the Portland defense sunk toward O’Neal.

Horry hadn’t made more than two three-pointers in a game this season, but his moving 23-footer from the corner with 1:22 left in the third gave the Lakers their biggest lead yet, 81-62.

O’Neal felt good about Horry too.

“Rob’s been been taking a lot of heat,” he said, “taking a lot of criticism, because he’s been playing out of position. But that’s Rob right there.”

WESTERN CONFERENCE RACE

The top eight teams advance to playoffs:

1. Utah: 35-12

2. Portland: 34-12

3. San Antonio: 33-13

4. Houston: 28-18

5. Lakers: 28-19

6. Phoenix: 25-22

7. Sacramento: 24-23

8. Minnesota: 23-23